Received my barrel yesterday (Wed). The $35 included return shipping. I am happy. Now to the shooting (Hear that weather god?)

Ian

Grumble that'd be a good idea. Shilen used to rent throating reamers that you did the job by hand too.

Thing is with the 45/70-- the variance in groove dia's and then having a bullet fit the throat that's cut. What I think will work nice with the Buff's is the normally tight groove dia's and then cutting the throat to about fit normal sizing dia's.

Now IF and WHEN I get a quality barrel on the Buff... I'll have a tapered throat cut and then a TAPERED sizing die cut too. I'd use the Lee sizer style and then run the bullet into that sizing area and tap it out. Or-- do it right and order a Mos mold...

I have found with my 45/70 that a tapered bore ride with a tapered front driver shooten's much better than the norm. I fashion these with a Lee 452 die-- tapping the bullet out again. The Applegate 45 cal spitzer about does this right otta the mold BTW-- nice shooten bullet and better than the Postell IME.

I am BTW-- threatening to run a 45 caliber spitzer thru Lee AFTER the HBC is done.

Grumble methinks you can get just a throater from a reamer maker for much less-- and ground to your specs.

If I had one ground tomorrow-- I'd ask around for what works. I'd be leaning to around 1.5 degrees per side though with NO hump at the land origin.

Thanks for the reply, Aladin. From the lack of response, I was afraid my question was a "turd in the punch bowl." <GGG>

For a number of reasons, I'm not big on the idea of renting reamers. I'd rather spend the extra bucks and just buy my own.

I'd thought about the difference in groove diameters too. But what I concluded was that a uniform "cone" that made the throat of each, even though the groove diameters vary as much as a full thou, would allow the same boolit to seat identically in the throats when chambered. I dislike having different buckets of the same type ammo for different guns, and identical throats would allow the same loads for all the guns.

The only throating reamers I could find in my initial search was from Brownell's, for $50. I'll have to call their techies, but from the meager description on the web site, it appears to have a 2.5-degree taper, which would be about right. I also have a Martini-Sharps with not enough headspace (too shallow a rim cut in the breech), so I'm also pondering the idea of buying a full chamber finish reamer that would also have a tapered, instead of the more common 90-degree, throat. That doubles the cost, and might also cause some other problems if I try to use that on all the barrels; I'm still thinking about that.

Personally, I'd prefer to buy a reamer and do several of my 45-70 bbls at once. That way, they'd all be the same.

Of the reamers available, any suggestions on which one to get?

Your weather god has to be more friendly than mine. Mine is bumping a real winter on us, as I'd need to get the range plowed to enter.

Axiously awating your results..